Ethics of Eating

What do I hope to accomplish today

• Information that I leaned at the workshop

• I apologize you are getting the info through my filter and bias.

• May each of you reflect on how you eat and buy food and think more about how you use food.

•My Elevator Talk

I am a person of the city

• I once hated the smell of manure• Over the years I have smelled that smell even

at worship

My first three congregations

• Jevnaker and Mandt, rural Montevideo, Mn.

• Garfield, rural Madison,Mn.

• Emmanuel, Seymour, Wi.

• I do not pretend to be an expert on the issues of farming, food or eating,

But… I love to eat food and I have health issues.

And I love to eat, but I want everyone to be able to have enough food to eat, because food is a matter of justice and God calls us to do justice.

ELCA Hunger Appeal

ELCA congregations raise $20 million a year

ELCA Hunger Appeal Goals

• Relief - meeting immediate needs

Education

• Increasing awareness of root causes of hunger and poverty

Advocacy

• Mobilizing at a government and business level

Development

• Long term sustainable development.

“You don’t teach people to fish, you show them the pole that is already in their hands.”

The Conference

• Intense• Extremely full– Long days– Travel, lectures, discussions

Highlights through my filter -

Theological Rational – why were we there?

• “We are people who gather around the table – we should know how our eating impacts the world.”

• Samuel Torvin, Daily Bread, Holy Meal

• Christians should be at the forefront of how to eat right.

• We as Christians (Lutherans) have been at the forefront of helping people (LSS) – that is who we are in Christ. We say as much at our baptisms and at confirmation.

• How we eat matters – impact on the hungry around the world

• How I eat can bring about justice – the burden is a big thing and it is complicated

• How I eat effects my health.

• We have become accustomed to cheap food.

• For suburban children food comes from the grocery store and it is abundant.

• What else do they and we need to know about food?

Darkside of Cheap Food

• More costly than what the costs show

• Justice Issues– Migrant workers abused– Minimum wage– People put off land in Mexico – migrant issues in

U.S.– Confined animals in feeding lots

Dark side continued…

• Health– Tainted eggs – 38 million recently recalled

– Obesity “super=size it”

– Type 2 diabetes

– Poor get hardest hit by chronic diseases

Dark side…

• Environment – cheap oil is cheap

• 1 calorie of food takes 6 calories energy to produce

• 1/5 of oil use is by farm, pesticides, gas for machinery.

• 1500 miles is average distance food travels

Why do we need to think about food?

• Who is it that benefits from a given policy or practice?

• Bible tells us that God has a preferential option for the poor – if God does – than we as God’s people are called to think and do on behalf of justice.

Lifestyle Changes

• We care for the poor and hungry by how we eat.

• Local Lower Less

Minnesota Food Association

• Glen Hill is director• Train immigrant farmers on sustainable,

organic farming and practical business practices – Hispanic, Hmong, Somali, Karen, Laotian, Burmese, Bhutanese, Kenyan, Cambodia

• See website for all they are doing

Common Harvest Farm

• Dan Guenther and Margaret Pennings, farmer/owners

• 40 acre farm grows more than 40 vegetables and herbs

• Deliver around 200 CSA boxes in a 19 or 20 week season to members at a cost of $250.

CSA Box/Bag

Community Sustainable Agriculture

Jack Nelson Pallmeyer

• Legacy of colonization – who owns the land.• Treatment of farm workers• Use/Abuse of antibiotics• Existence of 1 billion hungry people• Food for livestock versus food for people• Fuel versus food– 37 food riots around the world in last year

• Agricultural subsidies• Benefits and limitations of food aid• Hedge funds grabbing huge tracts of land• Impact of Trade Agreements –– 2-3 million farmers were pushed off land in

Mexico after NAFTA in 1990’s

• Water issues– Who controls it – Who gets it?– Salinization

GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organism) and other high tech solutions

• Palm Oil – In Malaysia and Indonesia slashing of rain forests for fuel.

• Balance between humans and other species

• How do we have a farm system that gives healthy prices to farmers?

• How do we eat healthy in light of these issues?

From a Christian view:

• Injustice is counter to the love of God

• Our task as Christians is to embody justice – In our lives– Vocational choices– Ways we related to systems of society– The dignity of the human person is central to

Christian theology

Bob Francis, Director of Domestic Policy for the ELCA

Some thoughts:• Advocacy is Christian Discipleship• Political is not Partisan• There are ethical implications to Farm Policy –

any government policy• Discussion on the Farm Bill in front of

Congress• ELCA.org/advocacy

Dr. Bud Markart, Professor of Horticulture, U of M

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a

pencil and you are a 1,000 miles from a corn

field.” DD Eisenhower

An Organic Farm

• A site specific growing system Integrating– Cultural– Biological - controlling pests– Mechanical practices

Fostering – cycling resourcespromoting ecological balanceconserving biodiversity

• Soil is alive (organic matter)

• Dirt is dead – only a holder of plants/nutrients

• Norman Borlaug – his heart was in the right place – increase in the yield of wheat – the Green Revolution.

• Long term consequences of short term benefits

• GMO’s – 2nd green revolution – what are long term consequences? We do not know yet.

Land O Lakes

• CSR – “Corporate Social Responsibility” – is a buzz word for the past few years.

• No profit motive – Leadership thought global CSR was right thing to do

Community Design Center

• East 7th Street in St Paul• 41 year old non profit that works with youth in

gardening, cooking and nutrition• 30 CSA members– $110 bag of vegetables for 8 weeksOver 42 youth in program, 115 applied - 7 gardens in neighborhood

First Lutheran Church in Swede Hollow

• Relationship with Community Design Center• Kris Bertleson, pastor–Community outreach in food/meals and

other support

– “We all do better when we all do better”

St. Olaf Lutheran Church

• 27th and Emerson – Minneapolis• Moved by global warming and peak oil prices

to work to re-localize food systems– Extensive gardens on lawn and parking lot• Starting a food coop• Talked about re-building resilience

• Pastor Steve Loman of St Olaf Lutheran ChurchA Scandinavian saying

“It is enough”.

Native American Gardening

–Off of I -94 and Cedar•Bought 400 yards of contaminated

land (arsenic and lead) from Minneapolis for $1•Heard stories of gardening and hope

Advocacy

• Minnesota Coalition for Public Policy

• Pastor Mark Peters –” three things to do”

Three things

• Learn about hunger and poverty

• Volunteer and donate

• Advocate – live with and stand beside someone who is hungry/poor

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others.”Winston Churchill

Bread for the World

• A citizen group that lobbies our elected

officials in Congress on Hunger issues both

domestic and world –wide.

Minnesota Without Poverty

• Nancy Maeker – director, ELCA pastor

• Family of 4 – poverty line is $22,000 – too low

3 person panel discussion

• All agreed that advocacy to government officials was important and life changing

What do I hope to do?

• 7th Grade Retreat in January– -Feed My Starving Children– “La Conexion” in Phillips Neighborhood,

Minneapolis –making a meal and learning

• A garden at St James?

• Connect in some ways with First Lutheran in St Paul with food/serving

• Take a group of Youth to Minneapolis and do some work with the Native Americans and their gardens next spring.

• Hold an all day World Hunger workshop using resources from the ELCA at St James.

• Watch a movie on food issues with members of St James and discuss it.

• Continue to reassess and change my eating and buying practices.

• My Sabbatical leave next summer will revolve around food issues with the theme “we are what we eat.”

• Remind myself that God loves all people and change starts with me.

• Forgive myself and others when I/we are not perfect